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The government of the United States is being held hostage by anarchists. These are not the scruffy boys in bandanas and black T-shirts who show up at otherwise peaceful protests to pick fights with police and shatter store windows. No, these anarchists wear suits and ties. They preach about freedom and claim to be patriotic “real” Americans. They are members of Congress.
The term “anarchist” may be a bit of hyperbole, but it hits closer to the mark than some of the old terminology habitually employed to describe political factions in this country.
For instance, to designate the contingent of House Republicans who backed the deposed Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, as “moderates” is very misleading. With few, if any, exceptions, they are traditional Reagan Republicans who are dependably conservative in the votes they cast. The only thing that makes them moderate is their willingness to accept that they cannot get everything they want every day and that, therefore, on rare occasions, compromise with Democrats might be necessary.
In the same way, it is imprecise to label those on the right in the House GOP caucus as “conservatives.” They are rabid MAGA devotees who will not compromise for any reason, certainly not for something as trivial (to them) as keeping the government open for business. They did not get themselves elected to Congress with aspirations to make government better, they came to the federal capital to make government disappear — which is pretty much the definition of an anarchist.
This week, a majority of Republican House members chose Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, the current majority leader, as their candidate to succeed McCarthy. However, a sizable minority of Republicans opposed Scalise behind closed caucus doors and, refusing to accept a loss, many of them were prepared to vote against him again when the full House casts ballots to choose the next speaker. That meant Scalise had little chance to gather the 217 votes needed to win the speaker’s gavel. Thus, shunned by his supposed compatriots, he gave up the fight.
This fracturing of the GOP majority is not a result of Scalise being insufficiently conservative; he is, by any measure, staunchly right wing. But he was apparently not pure enough or nihilistic enough for the suit-wearing anarchists like Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz or Texas Rep. Chip Roy or Pennsylvania Rep. Lloyd Smucker. These folks are small in numbers but, as long as a state of chaos remains, they are big in influence, making them even less inclined to compromise.
With a new war raging in Israel, aid for Ukraine on the line and a government shutdown looming, Republicans are hopelessly split between traditional conservatives and suit-wearing anarchists who refuse to free our hostage government.
See more of David Horsey’s cartoons at: st.news/davidhorsey
View other syndicated cartoonists at: st.news/cartoons
Editor’s note: Seattle Times Opinion no longer appends comment threads on David Horsey’s cartoons. Too many comments violated our community policies and reviewing the dozens that were flagged as inappropriate required too much of our limited staff time. You can comment via a Letter to the Editor. Please email us at letters@seattletimes.com and include your full name, address and telephone number for verification only. Letters are limited to 200 words.
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